Looking Glass
by Grav
Summary: A well-loved woman passes through the quantum mirror and whole worlds of might-have-beens flash before her daughter’s eyes.
1. Default Chapter

AN: This fic came to be because of a conversation I had with SG this morning, wherein she very subtly suggested that someone write a story where Carter's mother comes through the Quantum Mirror and much angst ensues. After we spent some time hammering out our time line discrepancies (we don't find out about Carter's mother until after the QM is destroyed), Andi suggested that we involve a network of mirrors, and then I finally got hit by a bolt of lightning and we were off to the races. This one's for you, m'dears.  
  
Disclaimer: Let me check. . .nope, still not mine. Sigh.  
  
Spoilers: There but for the Grace of God, The Tok'ra (I and II) Point of View, Jolinar's Memories, The Devil You Know, In the Line of Duty, minor for Small Victories, Divide and Conquer... Basically, it takes place late fourth season and everything before that is fair game.  
  
Summary: A well-loved woman passes through the quantum mirror and a world of might have beens flash before her daughter's eyes.  
  
* * * * * *  
  
"Unauthorized incoming wormhole!" announced the alarm system. With practiced ease, the SFs poured into the gate room and deployed themselves in formation. General Hammond, who had been finishing his coffee in his office, came down the stairs to find Major Carter and Sergeant Davis manning the computers while Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c stood behind and watched. A few seconds later, Dr. Daniel Jackson breezed into the room carrying his usual assortment of papers, books, and the ever present mug.  
  
"We are not receiving any authorization code, sir." Davis reported. "Iris is remaining closed."  
  
Out of the corner of his eye, Jack O'Neill saw his 2IC wince. Sam hated it when the iris had to remain closed, because there was no way of warning anyone who might attempt passage as to what would happen to them if they crossed the horizon on the other side. Suddenly, another alarm began to go off and he forced his attention back to the gate room.  
  
"Sergeant, what the hell is going on?" Hammond demanded of Davis as the iris began to fluctuate.  
  
"I don't know, sir." Davis said, sounding flustered, but his fingers continued to fly competently over the keyboard in front of him.  
  
"Well keep it closed!"  
  
But it was no use. The iris spun open, and the lighting in the gate room became watery as the event horizon reflected the light in different directions. There was a moment of utter silence, and then the rippling sound of a figure coming through the gate.  
  
She was tall and vaguely familiar, though Jack could not for the life of him place her. She was obviously human, and she held her hands aloft in the universal sign for peace. Jack waited for Hammond to give the order not to fire, but when none came, he looked across at his general.  
  
General Hammond was gaping, there was no graceful way to say it. He was completely frozen, and before Jack could even start to think why, there was a crash as Sam sent her chair to the floor and dashed out of the control room.  
  
"Carter?" Jack asked after her, but the Major was long gone.  
  
Hammond still said nothing, and the troops below were getting restless. Somehow though, the woman knew not to move. The blast door slid open and Carter came flying into the room.  
  
"Hold your fire!" Jack finally called down through the intercom when it became obvious that Hammond was not going to do it himself.  
  
Again there was silence in the gate room. It was finally broken by Major Samantha Carter, who uttered a word Jack never thought he'd hear her say in the present tense.  
  
"Mom?"  
  
* * * * * *  
  
AN: Short, short, I know. But my first chapters usually are, because I try to make them follow the TV format. Just hum the theme song until part two gets posted! 


	2. Chapter 2

AN: This is actually providing me with perfect balance! My other current fic is so Danny-heavy that I am currently going insane, so it's nice to get back to Jack and Sam. And this will be Jack and Sam, or flirt with the edges of it at least. Did I need to specify that?  
  
Oh God, what am I going to do with Mark?  
  
* * * * * *  
  
"How could this happen?" Hammond demanded, still sounding like he'd seen a ghost. "Abby Carter died years ago."  
  
"I have no idea, General." Daniel answered. "I'd suggest the quantum mirror, but we sort of took care of that."  
  
The two were making their way from the briefing room to the infirmary, where Sam had taken her mother immediately upon her arrival. Teal'c and Jack met them at a corner.  
  
"We have sent the signal to the Tok'ra, General Hammond." Teal'c reported. "A representative should be arriving shortly, and we can pass a message along to Jacob and Selmak."  
  
"What about Mark, sir?" Jack asked tactfully. It wasn't often that Jack thought about running an operation on the scale of the SGC, and those moments were usually ones where he realized how grateful he was that he didn't.  
  
"Not yet." responded Hammond, his face clearly betraying his feelings. "We need some answers first, Jack."  
  
Jack nodded, and the four of them turned into the infirmary. Dr. Fraiser met them near the door.  
  
"As far as I can tell, she's completely human. She even matches half of Major Carter's DNA. If she isn't actually her mother, I don't have any explanation for it."  
  
Hammond nodded and continued over to the bed where the woman who might be Abby Carter lay, with her daughter pacing beside her.  
  
"Abby?" Hammond said tentatively.  
  
"George!" The smile that lit up Abby's face was familiar to everyone in the room. "Oh, George, it's good to see you. Odd, but good."  
  
"Abby, can you tell us what happened?"  
  
"I am from an Alternate Universe. The same one that Samantha and Major Kawalsky came from."  
  
"What happened to them?" Jack asked, just a touch too quickly.  
  
"Kawalsky is part of the resistance. The Asgard have been helping us. Samantha. . .Samantha was. . .but she did succeed in convincing the Asgard to take us under their protection." Abby stopped for a minute, and looked up at Carter. "Samantha was working on something, some sort of weapon. But after the Goa'uld took her. . ."  
  
"They what?" this time it was Sam herself who burst out.  
  
"She was captured on a mission." Abby informed them stonily. "They made her a host, and Kawalsky killed her himself be fore he escaped."  
  
"Oh god."  
  
"No, nothing like that really. Anyway, the weapon Samantha was working on is quite advanced, but it isn't finished. We need someone like her to finish it. So Thor took me on his ship and brought me to a planet where he knew there was a Quantum Mirror, and sent me to this universe to another mirror, because Kawalsky said you'd destroyed this one. He showed me how to get through your iris, and gave me earth's address and the address of how to get home. And, here I am."  
  
The klaxons began to sound again.  
  
"What does that mean?" Abby asked, sounded slightly perturbed.  
  
"We're being contacted from off world." Hammond explained calmly. "It's nothing to be worried about."  
  
Fraiser's phone rang, and she answered it discreetly. She spoke for a few seconds, and then hung up.  
  
"That was Davis, sir. It's the Tok'ra."  
  
"O'Neill, Teal'c, go." Hammond commanded. "If it's him, bring him right here."  
  
"If it's who?" Abby demanded as Jack and Teal'c left. "And what is a Tok'ra?"  
  
"the Tok'ra are our allies, Abby." Hammond answered.  
  
"And my father is one of them." Sam added, unable to stand it any longer.  
  
Abby looked at her blankly. "Jacob? But, but he died."  
  
"So did I, mom. And here, so did you." Abby nodded in understanding.  
  
"George, can we do this in private?"  
  
"Of course. Dr. Jackson?" and the two of them left the infirmary.  
  
"So, you joined the Air Force, eh?" Abby asked her daughter. Sam smiled.  
  
"Apparently that never happens in any other universe. It just seemed the best way to stay close to dad. Well, that and they paid for my PhD."  
  
"And, Mark?"  
  
"Happily married, two children." Sam paused. "I don't know if you'll be allowed to see them."  
  
"I understand. What about your father?"  
  
"Well, I had a symbiote in my head once, and---"  
  
"You what?" Abby demanded. "I was ready for Teal'c, but I cannot believe that you were ever. . ."  
  
"No. No it wasn't like that. Her name was Jolinar and she was a rebel. A Tok'ra. When the assassin came to kill us, she died so that I would live, but I still have some of her memories. Anyway, we went looking for them to be our allies, and we got captured. They didn't want to let us go because we knew where their base was. Then SG-3 showed up and said that dad was dying, and I had an idea."  
  
"You put a Goa'uld into your own father?"  
  
"They aren't Goa'uld, mom. They're Tok'ra. And yes, I did. It was dad's choice, but Selmak liked him so she blended with him."  
  
"It's female?"  
  
"Well, gender isn't so much biological as it is implied, but yeah."  
  
"I always joked with him that if I ever died he'd have to move on, but that isn't exactly what I meant."  
  
"Mom!"  
  
"I'm kidding, Samantha, but it's a lot to digest."  
  
"Does he still sound like my Jacob?" Abby's voice was very quiet.  
  
"Yes. Most of the time he does. Sometimes, Selmak talks to us, but for the most part, we hear dad."  
  
"What about Jack O'Neill?"  
  
"What about Jack O'Neill?"  
  
"Oh please, Samantha, I may not be your mother, but I can still read you like a book."  
  
"Well, there's, regulations."  
  
"And if there weren't?"  
  
"I, uh, can't think about it, mom. It hurts too much."  
  
"Fair enough. But it seems to me that the Universe sucks if the only reality in which Earth manages to survive is the one where you entered the military and can't have him."  
  
"Technically, the Universe blows. Current models indicate that it's still expanding."  
  
"That's my girl."  
  
"Sam?" Dr. Fraiser's voice rang out. "He's on his way down."  
  
"He'll still be my Jacob?" Sam took her hand.  
  
"He's still my dad."  
  
* * * * * *  
  
AN: I am having an unbelievably good time with this. Are you? 


	3. Chapter 3

AN: And because I am a chicken, we're skipping the Jacob conversation! In my own defense, Sam said everything that needed said. Selmak, on the other hand, can hardly wait to get a few words in edge wise!  
  
* * * * * *  
  
"How do you think they are doing?" Jack asked.  
  
"Well it's a lot to deal with, and most of us have had experience with, um, unexpectedly resurrected loved ones, but they aren't yelling. Which is a good thing."  
  
Daniel and Jack stood outside the infirmary trying to come up with a good excuse to go in. They were still running on empty when Dr. Fraiser came around the corner and fixed them with a glare.  
  
"If you're going to attempt to spy on a family reunion, would you please try and remember that one of you has black ops training and the other has tact?"  
  
Jack swallowed a guffaw, and Daniel blushed as he stammered an answer. "I'm sorry, Janet, it's just that. . ."  
  
"I know." Janet's face softened. "Abby and Jacob just left for the commissary to eat something, and Sam went to her lab, so you can interrogate her all you like."  
  
"Interrogate?" Jack echoed, his voice glistening with false indignation.  
  
"Please, Colonel, I know exactly what you want to ask her."  
  
"Right." It dawned on Daniel what Jack was going to ask, and he realized he needed to make himself scarce. "Um, I've got a book to, um, do stuff with. I'll have to talk to Sam later."  
  
Janet rolled her eyes, and Daniel shrugged.  
  
"Okay then." Said Jack, not entirely sure he'd understood what just happened. "I'll catch you later."  
  
Jack set off in the direction of Sam's lab, and Janet punched Daniel in the shoulder the minute the Colonel's back was turned.  
  
"What? It's not like you helped. I did the best I could."  
  
Janet laughed.  
  
* * * * * *  
  
"Whatcha doing?"  
  
"Packing."  
  
"For what?"  
  
"To go and help my mother, sir. What else?"  
  
"Do the rest of us get to come?"  
  
"Well, you and I can. And mom and dad."  
  
"And what are we going to do?"  
  
"Finish the machine and come home."  
  
"Right. Um, Carter. . ."  
  
"She asked about you."  
  
"What?"  
  
"My mother. Asked me. About you."  
  
"And what did you tell her."  
  
"That you were my CO."  
  
"Ah."  
  
Sam said nothing, but continued packing large books and objects Jack didn't understand into her pack.  
  
"So, Carter, why do you always hook up with me? Why do the mirror people never come through and tell us about how much fun they had at your wedding to Daniel?"  
  
The look she shot him had daggers in it.  
  
"I'm sorry, Carter, that was out of line."  
  
"Damn right it was."  
  
"As was that."  
  
"With all due respect, sir, shut up."  
  
"See, I think that's the problem Carter. You hide behind the regs, and I insist on pissing you off by making crass attempts at humour."  
  
"And all this time I thought you were as dumb as you looked." She smiled. "And really, sir, if I wasn't laughing, I might cry at how ridiculous that whole situation is."  
  
"Does it strike you as unfair?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"That the one reality where you've joined the Air Force, the earth is saved, and all the ones where we're married, one or both of us is dead."  
  
"Yeah. Kinda."  
  
* * * * * *  
  
General Hammond finished reading the mission proposal Major Carter had submitted. To be honest, the idea of alternate universes made his head ache, but he understood why Carter felt that she had to go. Jack was the only other member of SG-1 that was able to accompany. Teal'c fully realized that he was not a welcome face in a reality where the Goa'uld had overrun Earth, and they would not always have time to explain that he was to everyone they came across. While the alternate Daniel's fate was unknown, he was presumed dead and Hammond's Daniel was very well aware that this was one mission for which he was grossly unqualified. Plus, there was the unvoiced consensus that should an extraction be necessary, Teal'c and Daniel were the best motivated to pull it off.  
  
The one bump was whether or not Selmak was alive in the alternate universe. Abby's Stargate had never made contact with the Tok'ra, so it was Sam's best guess that Selmak had died when Jacob had not shown up to be her host because Carter had never been inhabited by Jolinar because she had. . .And thus headaches became migraines.  
  
Hammond looked up at those who sat with him at the briefing table. Seeing Abby still made him want to do a double take, but he controlled it. He made his decision.  
  
"I can't order you to do this, Jack, but I am giving Major Carter permission to go ahead. If you wish to accompany her, you may."  
  
"Someone has to watch her six while she's fiddling with. . .whatever it was the other Sam was building."  
  
Hammond nodded.  
  
"Then you have a go."  
  
The Carters and Jack stood up as Hammond did, and headed to be geared up. About ten minutes later, the four of them strode into the gate room, followed by Teal'c, Daniel and Dr. Fraiser, who had come to see them off. From the control room, Hammond watched as Major Davis encoded the chevrons in the address Thor had given to Abby. They would have to find the right Universe when they got to the planet themselves, but if Carter couldn't do it, Hammond didn't know who could.  
  
"Good luck." Hammond said over the intercom as the wormhole surged into existence.  
  
The four travelers walked up the ramp, stepped through the gate and were gone. The wormhole dissipated behind them. Janet looked at Daniel, who raised his eyebrows. What would happen next was anybody's guess.  
  
* * * * * *  
  
AN: Except mine, of course, because I know more or less EXACTLY what is going to happen. And if you review, you'll find out too. 


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Wow. How come I can't write this much for papers? This is the fourth chapter today, and there's no sign of it stopping any time soon! Which is good for you, as the reader.  
  
Also, I am really starting to hate that there's two of everything.  
  
* * * * * *  
  
Alternate Thor was every bit as infuriating as his counterpart, so it was a quiet voyage from the mirror's planet to the Beta Site. Jack could not understand why the Asgard hadn't been more helpful, or able to figure out Dr. Carter's device. Sam explained that the Asgard simply do not think the right way, but then she had gone off on some tangent about bad tasting food and something called a kieron, and Jack got well and truly lost. There was just something wrong about the whole idea. It was like everything Jack was expecting ended up being just opposite enough that it threw him horribly. Which, he supposed was why they called it a mirror.  
  
"Hey Carter." He said quietly, so Jacob and Abby would not over hear him.  
  
"Yes sir?"  
  
"Do you find it odd that Teal'c killed Daniel's wife in our reality, and Kawalsky killed mine in this?"  
  
"I beg your pardon sir?"  
  
"I mean friends. Killing wives. It's. . .odd."  
  
"Sir, I think I prefer it when you don't think about these things out loud."  
  
"So you do then, eh?"  
  
"A little. It's kind of unnerving."  
  
"You think you'll be able to finish the weapon?"  
  
"Sir, no one even knows what the weapon is supposed to do. Apparently, Dr. Carter was very good at keeping secrets."  
  
"Must come with the genes."  
  
"I am going to take that as a compliment, because I want this conversation to end."  
  
"Now, now children." Called Abby from across the cargo bay. "Play nice!"  
  
Jacob shot a strange look, first at his wife, and then across the bay, but didn't say anything.  
  
"How is Selmak, dad?" Sam asked, trying to change the subject.  
  
"I am fine, thank you Major Carter."  
  
Abby's eyes grew wide and she drew back from Jacob's body.  
  
"You have nothing to fear from me Abigail Carter. I would not harm one whom my host so loves."  
  
Jacob shook his head. "I'm sorry, that happens sometimes. Selmak likes you. She thinks I have good taste."  
  
Abby smiled faintly. "Well, thank heavens for small blessings."  
  
The doors to the bay slid open and Thor walked into the room.  
  
"We have reached our destination." He announced. "Please, come with me to the transportation device. I will leave you on this planet for three days, and then return to take you home."  
  
"Three days!" Sam exclaimed. "What if I can't. . ."  
  
"If you can't solve it in three days, it won't matter Samantha. The Goa'uld are going to attack the Beta Site."  
  
"What?" said Jacob.  
  
"Now you understand how I feel about the little twists the Tok'ra throw our way sometimes!" Jack interjected.  
  
"Samantha can do it." Abby stated.  
  
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, mom, but what if they attack early? Or waylay Thor?"  
  
"I have faith in you Samantha, you will find a way."  
  
"Come on campers." Jack said, hefting his pack up. "We've got three days. Lets not waste them."  
  
He recognized all too well the look Carter shot him as she hoisted her bag up to follow him. He usually saw it before she panicked. Which was traditionally followed by a bolt of lightning that saved their collective behinds. She would get them through, and then he would get them home. That was just the way it worked.  
  
* * * * * *  
  
"I have no idea what I'm doing."  
  
Jack was able to dodge the pen that hurtled past his head thanks to years of government funded training.  
  
"Maybe it isn't that I don't know what I am doing; it's that I don't know what I was doing."  
  
"Do you mean the other Carter?" Jack ventured.  
  
"Yes, sir."  
  
"Oh. Well, um, did you keep notes?"  
  
"I keep notes in my laptop, encrypted, just in case. She doesn't have a laptop, so she must have used something else."  
  
"What would you use if you didn't have a laptop?"  
  
"A notebook?"  
  
"I'm asking the questions, Carter."  
  
"Fine. I'd use a notebook."  
  
"Swell. Now help me find it, would you?"  
  
* * * * * *  
  
"Are they always like that?" Abby asked her not-quite-husband.  
  
"Jacob prefers not to think about it." Selmak replied. "Apparently, there is some sort of rule that prohibits them from getting close. I have noticed that they complement each other extremely well and work with great efficiency."  
  
"What does Jacob think?"  
  
"He wants his daughter to be happy, and he is unsure about how she is going to accomplish that."  
  
"My Samantha was happy. With her Jack. They fought all the time, but only an idiot couldn't tell that they weren't really fighting. They were different and they loved it. Together, they were almost perfect." She sighed. "It's kind of cruel. Fate-wise, I mean."  
  
"Yeah." Said Jacob. "It kind of is."  
  
* * * * * *  
  
The only paper that Dr. Carter had was her diary. Jack immediately refused to read it, saying that Sam was uniquely qualified. Still, Sam felt like she was intruding immensely. Reading one's dead alternate's thought was unsettling.  
  
For the most part, the diary was just a record of her daily routine. Everything except what she was building. But Sam knew she wasn't that easy. Sam knew the clock was ticking. It had taken half a day for her to get frustrated enough with the machine to look for notes, and then two more hours to turn up the notebook. Since then, she'd read until the sun was gone, and Abby had brought her a candle and a plate of MREs, and she was no closer to breaking Dr. Carter's cipher.  
  
"How's it going, Major?" Jack asked, sitting down beside her.  
  
"Nowhere." God, she sounded so defeated.  
  
"You'll find it."  
  
"How do you know that?"  
  
"Because that's what you do. You find things."  
  
"She writes about you a lot."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"She missed you. A lot."  
  
"I know. When we left her she. . ."  
  
"I saw."  
  
"Oh." He was quiet for a minute. "And did you hear what I said afterward?"  
  
"No."  
  
"She said 'You really aren't him.' and I said 'No, I'm not.' and then I left her."  
  
"What are you trying to say, Colonel?"  
  
"I think I'm trying to say that she wasn't you, Carter. You thought similarly, but not the same. Try and think like her."  
  
"How?"  
  
"Well, what was the most important thing to her?"  
  
"You...he was." She paused. And then her eyes widened as it hit her.  
  
Sam grabbed a pen and paper and began to record the dates of the entries that mentioned Jack. She realized that they came in a pattern, and that the numbers looked a lot like frequencies of something. She stood and flew across the room to the machine, laying her hands on it, almost reverently.  
  
"My god." She gasped. "We're a genius."  
  
* * * * * *  
  
AN: Of course I know what the weapon is. Whatever would make you think that I'm stalling? * giggles insanely * 


	5. Chapter 5

AN: The original intent of this story was that it be very, very angsty. And I realized that it wasn't really. So here we go.  
  
I wasn't going to change my ANs, but after reading a couple of the reviews, I just have to. Macisgate, if you have a guess as to what the weapon is at the end of chapter four, you're a step ahead where I was at that point! SG, if you liked Jack last chapter, I think this one's even better! And then chapter six just keeps it coming!  
  
* * * * * *  
  
"I don't understand why Dr. Carter had to put this in such an elaborate code." Sam said, setting down the notebook to accept the cup of coffee Jack handed her.  
  
"There was a spy." Abby replied simply, putting a forkful of what passed for breakfast into her mouth and chewing thoughtfully. "We knew we had one, but we didn't know who it was, so Samantha told no one what she was doing and encrypted all of her notes."  
  
"Well, won't the spy tell the Goa'uld that we're here?" Jack asked.  
  
"No. Kawalsky has taken care of him. But Samantha was already dead, so it was too late for her to decrypt her notes."  
  
"Oh." Sam said quietly. She turned to her father. "Any luck contacting the Tok'ra in this reality?"  
  
"I sent a message as soon as we arrived yesterday, but with the gate here buried, they'd have to bring a ship, and they might think it's a trap." Jacob replied, then bowed his head for Selmak to take over. "It is also possible that the Tok'ra do not exist in this universe. At any point in this reality's history, a choice might have been made that stopped the Tok'ra from beginning their rebellion."  
  
"Maybe they're just taking their time." Sam suggested without much confidence in her voice. She swallowed the last of her breakfast, and straightened her shoulders. "Well, back to work with me."  
  
Sam and Jack stood up and headed off to the lab. As they walked, Sam filled Jack in on what she thought the weapon was for.  
  
"As far as I can tell, sir, its purpose is to get through the shields of a Goa'uld mothership."  
  
"It must pack quite a punch."  
  
"No, sir. I don't think so. I think that the intervals in the diary entries indicate the number of seconds between shots, and the actual dates themselves are the frequency at which to fire."  
  
"I understood so little of that."  
  
"It's like knocking in code sir. If we hit the right combination, the door comes down."  
  
"Shave and a haircut?"  
  
"Two bits."  
  
* * * * * *  
  
Sam, whether she would admit it or not, was completely in her element here. She was swearing a great deal, but Jack knew her well enough to realize that she was on a roll, and Sam Carter on a roll was something to be reckoned with.  
  
He was still very uncomfortable here. For starters, he was supposed to be dead, and even though he kept to the tent and out of view as much as he could, he still attracted a lot of attention whenever he had to leave. Additionally, he could not shake the feeling that something was wrong here. His years of experience taught him to pay close attention to his instincts, and they were refusing to cooperate. He didn't know if they were all worked up because of the reality, or because of a legitimate threat. What concerned him the most, was that it might be both.  
  
He dealt with his misgivings in the time honoured fashion of pacing back and forth while Sam tinkered with the machine. Now that she knew what it was supposed to do, she was having no more trouble finishing it. The only question that remained was if it would be done by the time Thor came to take them home.  
  
And if she would leave if it wasn't.  
  
* * * * * *  
  
After six hours of work - during which time, Jack wasn't even sure his 2IC had blinked - he ordered her out of the lab for at least fifteen minutes to clear her head. She protested, naturally, but had resisted only minimally when he'd pulled her to her feet and bodily thrown her out the door. In truth, Sam welcomed the reprieve.  
  
Abby had offered to give her a tour of the encampment, and Sam was willing to take her up on it. She discovered that her alternate's mother had been in cahoots with her CO, as Abby was waiting for her outside the lab with a picnic basket and a blanket. Internally, Sam sighed, wondering if these people would ever realize that she could take care of herself, but on the outside she smiled.  
  
Lunch was only MREs, but it was still food, and Sam was willing to eat anything by this point. The two ate in silence for a while, but Abby obviously had an agenda for the afternoon, and eventually got around to airing it.  
  
"You know, we could really use you here."  
  
"I can't mom, I have to go home." Sam wondered absently why she called Abby 'mom' when she thought of her as 'Abby'.  
  
"But they have other scientists there. We have no one. Ever since Rodney was killed. . ."  
  
"McKay was here too?" Sam demanded, caught completely off guard.  
  
"Yes, Samantha, he was the spy."  
  
"Damn."  
  
"You know him in your reality?"  
  
"Yes, he's, well, he's very annoying."  
  
"Really? I always thought he was kind of sweet. Until the Goa'uld got him anyway."  
  
"Weird." Sam commented, and then realized that she was being artfully distracted. "But that doesn't change anything, mom. I have to go home."  
  
"But we need you!"  
  
"They need me too."  
  
"Samantha. . ."  
  
"That is not me!" Sam was yelling now, and she wasn't entirely sure why. "I am not her. They call me Sam."  
  
"Your father used to call you that and I used to hate it." Abby said through her teeth. "He never let you be a girl, and without me around while you were growing up, you've obviously never learned how to be a woman."  
  
"What are you saying?"  
  
"You were happy, Samantha."  
  
"I am not Samantha. And if you are suggesting that the only way any of me can find happiness is with him, you obviously don't know me at all. And even if I did stay, there's no way in hell that O'Neill would too. If there's one thing I've learned in all this alternate universe traveling, it's that the Sam Carter who joined the Air Force is the one who helped save Earth, and if that means that I can never have. . ." Sam stood up, unable to bear the presence of this woman any longer. "I will finish the damn machine. And then dad and Colonel O'Neill and I are going home."  
  
She spun on her heal and strode back toward the main camp, leaving Abigail Carter alone in the midst of a ruined picnic.  
  
* * * * * *  
  
Jack ducked into the lab to find Carter busy at work. She didn't hear him come in. He could tell that she was angry about something by the way that she moved, a bit more jerkily than usual, but he hadn't the slightest idea what it might be. He had not seen Abby, however, so he began to formulate a theory.  
  
"Carter?" he asked lightly, in the tone of a Colonel in pursuit of a progress report.  
  
"You never call me Samantha," she said without looking up.  
  
"Um, Carter?" Now he was a Colonel with absolutely no idea what was going on.  
  
"You never call me Samantha," she stated again. "Why?"  
  
"I must have done it at some point." He answered defensively. "But I guess it's because Sam is quicker. I mean, Daniel has three syllables, but you can get it out quickly. There really aren't any short cuts in Samantha."  
  
"And then of course there is the military part."  
  
"Well, yes. Why are we talking about this?"  
  
"She had the gall to suggest that I stay here. That they needed me more here than at home."  
  
"Oh," he responded, completely not with her.  
  
"She said you should stay too."  
  
"Oh." This was making more and more sense. "And what's pissing you off is that for a few seconds, you were tempted."  
  
And they said he wasn't perceptive.  
  
"More than a few sir."  
  
"Samantha?" he began, his voice giving nothing, and thus everything away.  
  
"Yes sir?"  
  
"I'm not worth it."  
  
"Neither am I, sir."  
  
* * * * * *  
  
AN: Well, was that enough for you? Tell me in review. 


	6. Chapter 6

AN: Well, it's been a fun, if very quick ride. This took me 24 hours to write from the first time I read SG's idea to the time it was ended and that's taking out 12 hours to sleep and 2 to watch Alias. Thanks to SG for the lightning beta for the lightning story (and for HT&CC!), and everybody at Kree! for answering my questions.  
  
On with the show!  
  
* * * * * *  
  
Sam finished the machine just after the sun set on the second day. When the third dawned clear and bright, she woke up with the birds to teach Kawalsky how to operate it before Thor came to take them home. She could not help but feel that she was leaving them high and dry, but there was no way to test the machine, and Jack stood in agreement with Thor: they had done all they could here, and getting home was absolutely vital.  
  
So it was that Sam, Jacob and Jack stood in the centre of a large glade, waiting to be taken into the sky.  
  
"Thank you for coming." Abby said simply.  
  
"It was a pleasure," replied Jacob, a hint of a smile on his face.  
  
"I'm sorry for what I said, Sam." Abby said.  
  
"That's Okay, Abby. I understand why you said it."  
  
"Tell Mark--" Abby paused. "You can't tell him anything, can you?"  
  
Sam shook her head.  
  
"Maybe I'll come visit."  
  
Jack didn't have the heart to tell her that the mirror would be destroyed as soon as they passed through it.  
  
"Is there ever any warning of when this is going to happen?" Abby questioned, staring futilely up at the sky.  
  
"Oh no." Jack replied grandiosely. "Thor likes to make an entrance. Never lets you know he's coming. Likes to interrupt fishing trips in partic--"  
  
And a golden light swept through the glade, leaving Abby Carter standing alone. She smiled and looked up one last time and then walked back to her home and the grave of her daughter.  
  
* * * * * *  
  
"-ular."  
  
"Welcome, O'Neill. Were you successful?"  
  
"Why yes, I suppose you could say we were."  
  
* * * * * *  
  
Samantha Carter stood on a planet whose designation she did not know, and sighed in relief.  
  
"What?" asked her father.  
  
"It's good to be back." She smiled.  
  
Jacob stepped up to the gate and began to dial Earth as Jack finished laying the last of the charges around the base of the Quantum Mirror. He looked up at Sam, and then handed her the detonator. As the wormhole surged into existence, Sam pressed the button, and destroyed another of the portals to the worlds beyond the worlds beyond her own.  
  
"Let's go home," Jacob said. Carter input her GDO and they waited a few seconds, then Jacob stepped through.  
  
"Colonel?"  
  
"Yes Carter?"  
  
"Someday?"  
  
"Someday."  
  
* * * * * *  
  
Sam stepped on to the ramp and looked around the gate room. This was home, and it was worth it. She knew as soon as she saw it, and she was unable to stop herself from smiling. She felt Jack arrive behind her and heard the wormhole close off.  
  
"Welcome home Colonel, Major, Jacob." Hammond greeted, nodding to each in turn.  
  
"It's good to be back, sir," Sam answered, and meant every word of it.  
  
"Were you successful?" Teal'c asked.  
  
"Yes," Sam replied, although, technically that question should have been fielded by Jack. "I managed to learn how Dr. Carter thought, and make sense of her files and her invention. I've brought the plans with me, sir, but I don't know if I'll ever be able to duplicate what she did."  
  
"Anything you can try is appreciated, as always, Major." Hammond told her, allowing himself the barest of smiles. "In the meantime, we'll debrief in an hour. Please report to the infirmary for a checkup before then."  
  
Jack sighed loudly, and Sam was unable to keep herself from laughing, just a little bit. Daniel shot her a questioning look, which she faced down unflinchingly. She followed her father and CO out through the blast doors.  
  
Somewhere between the gate room and the infirmary, Samantha Carter had a revelation. The choices she made in this reality did not mean that what happened in the others would never come to pass here. The non-military Sams had all got what they wanted, but it hadn't lasted. Yes, they had been happy, but she was happy too. And her actions, her joining the Air Force, her being a member of SG-1, ensured that someday, someday would come.  
  
Janet, she thought, do your worst.  
  
* * * * * *  
  
~finis~  
  
AN: Well, I hope everyone else had as much fun with this as I did. It's been a blast! R&R SVP!  
  
gravity_not_included, April 18 and 19, 2004. 


End file.
